THE SPINNING TOP:
Staging Authenticity - Beauty and the Digital Self(ie)

Throughout the years, existential thinkers like Nietzsche, Heidegger, and Sartre, have questioned what it means to be authentic, particularly in our modern world. Many have focussed on the intersubjectivity of human beings thrown into a world of inevitable social connections with families, cultural circles, local and global communities, and most recently, social media followers. Subsequently, these thinkers have questioned whether we discover our authentic selves, “at home” amongst the members of our families and immediate communities, or whether the illusive self is out in the world amongst strangers[1]. But what exactly does it mean to discover one’s authentic self? And what does the image we present of ourselves online have to do with it?

While Nietzsche believed that authenticity is developed when human beings “create themselves,” looking inward, Heidegger emphasized the social basis of authentic living that demands looking outward at the people around them[2]. Indeed, Heidegger insisted that authentic existence unfolds as a “co-happening” within a community[3]. In the digital age, followers have become the community we rely on to recognize ourselves as authentic beings. With pictures at the forefront of many social media sites like Instagram and Facebook, our online image is inextricably tied to our identities, the authenticity and validity of these identities being enforced by comments, likes, and engagement.

Marshall McLuhan wrote about the advent of telecommunications slowly disintegrating the barrier between private and public realms, saying, “the planet became a global theatre in which there are no spectators but only actors”[4]. This is to say that social media is a carefully mediated performance, “defined by relations, interactions, and encounters between co-participants”[5]. As we interact with others online, or refuse to do so, we make statements about ourselves, thus confirming that “who we are is the persona(e) we perform, day to day, with repetition and continuity”[6]. When it comes to the performance of beauty in the digital age, it’s clear that these personae have the ability to “signal a number of traits, such as social status, political beliefs or cultural tastes” to our advantage or disadvantage.[7]

Hubert Dreyfus writes, “with the internet, we aspire to leave behind our bodies and gain a remarkable new freedom never before available to human beings”[8]. But it isn’t entirely possible to leave our bodies behind when the goal of the most popular picture-sharing site, Instagram, encourages users to “imprint their digital selves online, from digital photographs and selfies to opinions, commentary, memes, and hashtags”[9]. Indeed, the selfie is an especially powerful tool for self-representation as “the selfie gives the average user a modicum of control and self-definition” through the ability to take and display one’s own image online[10]. According to Theresa Sauter, “in publicity culture… people are rewarded with jobs, dates, and attention for displaying themselves in an easily-consumed public way”[11]. This is to say that an Instagram image has the power to earn users money, fame, and respect if their feed is curated with “winning images”, which are photos that get the most likes. In fact, “the commercial, editorial, and creative ventures [of Instagram]” are part of a larger, allied cohort that is rapidly gaining popular visibility”[12].

Just as selfies have the ability to be commercially beneficial, selfies have the ability to be political. As Lauren Cornell writes, “self-portraiture is linked to representation and visibility”[13]. By taking control of the camera, many feminist artists have inserted themselves into the online conversation and provided alternatives to the traditional selfie by adding subversive visual effects to their photos or depicting themselves as purposefully ‘ugly’ in order to escape commodification. Selfies also provide users the opportunity to defy stereotypes and increase awareness for disabilities, alternative gender expressions, and sexual identities. However, in her article on feminism and art, Carmen Winant wonders, “can an inclusive and far-reaching feminism develop within the confines of a western-minded social media universe that upholds the status quo of capitalism – the begetter of privilege and the patriarchy alike?”[14]. In other words, is it possible to be depict radically feminist beauty within the confines of the capitalist social media structure?

Writing about the #BlackGirlMagic hashtag, black feminist Janelle Hobson calls for more to be said about “how digital spaces – made accessible in our present-day electronic revolution – have reified and raced and gendered meanings of black women’s bodies”[15]. She refers to Instagram as a “representative and performative site of beauty and defiance” which contributes to “an essential and essentialist tool to validate the black body”[16]. This is to say that while movements like the #BlackGirlMagic hashtag can “reframe the beauty and value of black womanhood”, they can also reduce the black woman’s body to “a political site of resistance”[17].

As Lisa Gail Collins argues, “photography has the power to document and confirm stereotypes of the body – based on the visual frames utilized in imagery to construct scientific proof”[18]. With the addition of social media, photos can be shared as evidence of beauty, authenticity, or their opposites. In ancient Greece, artists “studied the human body as one way to define human identity”[19]. In the age of the internet, we are trying to do the same. By presenting our bodies as “symbols of physical and moral perfection” through edited images targeted at followers, we try to “reconcile an extraordinary plurality of individuals with the unity of humanity”[20]. If social media cannot offer us the possibility of presenting our extraordinary plurality, perhaps we must, as Nietzsche said, “look inwards” to determine authenticity.

Julia Albert, Andrew Fullerton, Harsh Patankar, Alexandra Rozenberg,
and Denise Zhu

1. Robert J. Shepard, “Why Heidegger Did Not Travel: Existential Angst, Authenticity, and Tourist Experiences.” Annals of Tourism Research, vol. 52, Elsevier Ltd, May 2015, pp. 60–71. Link.

2. Ibid.

3. Ibid.

4. Abigail De Kosnick,“Is Twitter a Stage?: Theories of Social Media Platforms as Performance Spaces.” #Identity: Hashtagging Race, Gender, Sexuality, and Nation, edited by Abigail De Kosnik and Keith P. Feldman, University of Michigan Press: Ann Arbor, 2019, pp. 20–36.

5. Ibid.

6. Ibid.

7. Ibid.

8. Hubert L. Dreyfus. On the Internet. (New York: Routledge 2009).

9. Janelle Hobson. “African Women's Development Fund.” African Women's Development Fund, 2016. Link.

10. Erving Goffman, “Performances: Belief in the Part One Is Playing,” in The Performance Studies Reader, ed. Henry Bial and Sara Brady (New York: Psychology Press, 2004), 59-63.

11. Theresa Sauter. "'What's on your mind?' Writing on Facebook as a Tool for Self-Formation." New Media and Society 16, no. 5 (2013).

12. Cornell, Lauren. “Self-Portraiture in the First-Person Age.” Aperture, no. 221, 2015, pp. 34–41.

13. Ibid.

Bibliography:

Cornell, Lauren. “Self-Portraiture in the First-Person Age.” Aperture, no. 221, 2015, pp. 34–41. Link.

De Kosnik, Abigail. “Is Twitter a Stage?: Theories of Social Media Platforms as Performance Spaces.” #Identity: Hashtagging Race, Gender, Sexuality, and Nation, edited by Abigail De Kosnik and Keith P. Feldman, University of Michigan Press: Ann Arbor, 2019, pp. 20–36. Link.

Dreyfus, Hubert L. On the Internet. New York: Routledge, 2009.

Hobson, Janelle. “African Women's Development Fund.” African Women's Development Fund, 2016. Link.

Hortan, Richard. "Beauty, the Body, and Identity." The Lancet 385, no. 9977 (April 18, 2015). Link.

Sauter, Theresa. "'What's on your mind?' Writing on Facebook as a Tool for Self-Formation." New Media and Society 16, no. 5 (July 8, 2013): 823-39. Link.

Shepherd, Robert J. “Why Heidegger Did Not Travel: Existential Angst, Authenticity, and Tourist Experiences.” Annals of Tourism Research, vol. 52, Elsevier Ltd, May 2015, pp. 60–71. Link.

Winant, Carmen. "Our Bodies, Online - Feminist Images in the Age of Instagram." Aperture (2016).

Postscript
Working on the digital essay in these unprecedented circumstances was a truly unique experience. Every member of our group had to extend themselves beyond their comfort zones, yet we managed to effectively communicate as a group and support each other where needed in order to complete the assignment to the best of our abilities. Following our seminars, we began by each contributing sections to the overall script of the digital essay. Then, Andrew read over all of our work and edited the script to connect all of our individual pieces into a cohesive whole. Once we had finished that, Harsh established a PowerPoint we could collectively work on online through our shared UWO accounts. Julia started to create a theme for the presentation, and Andrew added in the skeleton for what would become our digital essay. Meanwhile, Alex consolidated all of our individual written work and formulated the essay while Harsh wrote the postscript. Every member of the group looked over the skeleton of the Digital Essay, adding some images and instructions regarding what they wanted their sections to look like. After this, Julia and Harsh recorded the script and sent the audio files to Denise. Finally, Denise embedded all of the audio and turned the PowerPoint from an outline into an actual video presentation by adding media, transitions and establishing the ultimate design for the final product. We largely communicated through a shared group chat, and despite us all having other commitments and assignments, we each fulfilled our individual responsibilities in an effective manner.

14. Winant, Carmen. "Our Bodies, Online - Feminist Images in the Age of
Instagram." Aperture (2016).

15. Janelle Hobson. “African Women's Development Fund.”

16. Ibid.

17. Ibid.

18. Janelle Hobson. “African Women's Development Fund.”

19. Richard Hortan. "Beauty, the Body, and Identity." The Lancet 385, no. 9977 (April 18, 2015).

20. Ibid.